This how to will guide you on installing ProFTPD on Ubuntu 15.04. For those of you who didn’t know, ProFTPD is a GPL-licensed FTP server that can be installed for free on your Linux system. It’s an alternative to vsftpd. ProFTPD open source FTP server one most used, secure and reliable file transfer daemons on Unix environments, due to its file configurations simplicity speed and easy setup.
This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple. I will show you through the step by step installation ProFTPD in ubuntu 15.04 server.
Install ProFTPD on Ubuntu 15.04
Step 1. First make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running these following apt-get commands in the terminal.
1 2 | sudoapt-getupdate sudoapt-getupgrade |
Step 2. Install ProFTPD and all required packages.
1 | sudoapt-getinstallproftpd |
During the installation, you’ll be prompted to choose the installation method that you want. There are two installation method, standard daemon and the inet daemon methods.
Configure Proftpd
Step 3. Configure ProFTPD.
ProFTPD default configuration file is at /etc/proftpd.conf.
1 | nano/etc/proftpd.conf |
Change the ServerName to the hostname of your server. In the case below, ftp.idroot.net is an example:
1 | ServerName“ftp.idroot.net” |
Uncomment DefaultRoot:
1 2 | # Use this to jail all users in their homes DefaultRoot |
Create FTP User
Step 4. Add an FTP User.
Before you create a user for Proftpd, please add /bin/false to your /etc/shells file:
1 | echo"/bin/false">>/etc/shells |
Create a user with a home directory where he will get access to by FTP. I will disable shell access for this user by assigning the “/bin/false” shell to him to ensure that he can not login by SSH. My username is named “idroot”, please replace idroot with your username in the next command:
1 | adduser--home/home/idroot--shell/bin/falseidroot |
Next, configure Proftpd to allow the user idroot to access the FTP server:
1 2 | cd/etc/proftpd/ nanoproftpd.con |
Add this config to allow user idroot to login and upload/download file to/from his home directory /home/idroot:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 | <Directory/home/idroot> Umask022022 AllowOverwriteoff <LimitLOGIN> AllowUseridroot DenyALL </Limit> <LimitALL> OrderAllow,Deny AllowUseridroot DenyALL </Limit> <LimitMKDSTORDELEXMKDRNRFRNTORMDXRMD> AllowUseridroot DenyALL </Limit> </Directory> |
Run the commands below to restart ProFTPD:
1 | systemctlrestartproftpd |
Step 5. Access the FTP server.
Once you have installed the FTP server and configured it to your liking, Now all you have to do is open an FTP client and connect to the server using its IP address, hostname or domain name. If everything is configure correctly, you should be granted access to the server with the correct username and password.
Congratulation’s! You have successfully installed ProFTPD. Thanks for using this tutorial for installting ProFTPD on ubuntu 15.04 systems. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you to check the official ProFTPD web site.
